An experience common to many is the exposure to advertisements in audio or visual formats, or combinations of the two. For example, a person driving an automobile and listening to a local radio station will inevitably be exposed to commercials from a wide variety of individuals, businesses and like entities. As is often the case, the individual glosses over the advertisements or commercials. Although advertisements are structured to capture one's attention, the constant bombardment from advertisers often leads to sensory overload. The result—the individual forgets most, if not all, of the information provided in the advertisement. The process of ignoring advertisements and not committing to memory the information being provided can lead one to inadvertently overlook or gloss over an advertisement that contains information of interest to the individual.
Another common occurrence is switching to a station in the middle of an advertisement broadcast so that the listener has not had an opportunity to hear all of the pertinent information. A yet further occurrence is when one hears an advertisement of interest while driving, but does not have a pen and paper available to write down the information. One has to commit the information to memory, which may lead to inaccurate recordation of the pertinent information.
Presently, the options for retrieving the information are limited. If provided over a radio broadcast for example, the individual can continue listening to the broadcast in the hope that the advertisement will be replayed. Another option is to contact the broadcasting entity to request the desired information. This, of course, requires knowing the name of the broadcast entity. If not known, the individual will have to engage in further investigation for the sole purpose of retrieving information about an advertisement.
Another example of overlooked advertisement information involves the placement of advertisements on billboards. Billboard advertisements require an individual to physically pass by the billboard in order to be exposed to the advertisement. If an individual passes a billboard advertisement, but only glances at the billboard long enough to realize the information is of interest, the individual has to alter his or her course of travel to pass by the billboard a second time in order to review the information contained in the advertisement. This is often not feasible or is substantially inconvenient if the billboard is visible from a highway with few off-ramps near the billboard location.
Television provides a further example of advertisement sources that can be easily overlooked. Whether the individual is channel surfing and catches only a glimpse of an advertisement, and does not remember on which channel the advertisement was broadcast, or glosses over an advertisement as a matter of habit, the result is the same—advertisement information of interest that cannot be easily retrieved. The individual is again left with few options to retrieve the information from the advertisement of interest.